Barstow STEM Academy

Barstow STEM Academy, an intimate 6-8 campus in Barstow, California, part of Barstow Unified, instructs 454 students, covering grades 5 through 8. Enrollment runs roughly 31% below the state mean of about 659.

Within Barstow Unified, which oversees 13 schools and 6,118 students, Barstow STEM Academy is one campus in the system.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Barstow STEM Academy lists that 63% of the student body identifies as Hispanic; the rest breaks down as 19% White, 10% Black, 5% multiracial.

On the resource side, On paper, Barstow STEM Academy has 15 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 30.3:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 20.7:1, putting Barstow STEM Academy higher than the state norm the norm. An estimated 60% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against San Bernardino County (around 74%), the school's rate is meaningfully below typical.

With demographic context factored in, On a poverty-adjusted basis, Barstow STEM Academy sits in the bottom 10% statewide. Predicted proficiency from the FRL regression is roughly 43.7%; actual is 29.0%, a gap of -14.7 points.

In the broader community, community-level numbers for San Bernardino County indicate median household earnings sit near $85,478, roughly 23% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 11%. In all, San Bernardino County runs 583 public schools (combined enrollment of about 393,648 students), of which Barstow STEM Academy is one.

Barstow High is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.2 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 6 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Barstow STEM Academy ranks 1st on composite proficiency, above the local average of 16.1%.

Geographically, the school is in a town-center area.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count climbed 13%: 401 students in 2018 compared to 454 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 28% to 19% across the same window.

In the discussion threads here, recent activity here tends to focus on science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.